Mischa Jakupcak champions original and authentic stories in films and virtual reality. She earned a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Arizona in Creative Writing and Philosophy and went on to receive an MA in Filmmaking, focusing on world cinema, from the London Film School. There, she was influenced by LFS Chairman Mike Leigh, the work of Abbas Kirostami and Maya Deren, among others. Passionate about writing, directing and producing film, television and VR/AR/XR, Mischa has worked on over thirty feature films, nine VR pieces as well as actively engaging communities to encourage creative activism through the arts and technology.
Mischa Co-founded Mechanical Dreams, a cinematic VR and film company with Lacey Leavitt. She produced Ch'aak' S'aagi (Eagle Bone) collaborating with Indigenous activist and filmmaker Tracy Rector, Nahaan, Ken Workman, and the Nàakw Dancers, Ch’aak’ S’aagi. First premiering as a work in progress version at SIFFX, then a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Ch'aak S'aagi is currently touring the international film festival circuit. It is the first Indigenous directed VR piece to be made in the U.S.
Mischa produced Todd Rohal’s short film M.O.P.Z. for Adult Swim (Cartoon Network) and Megan Griffith’s The Off Hours, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She also wrote and directed The Hero Pose, a short film that has played at over thirty film festivals worldwide, has been translated to screen in Korean, Spanish and Italian, and has been awarded numerous writing, directing and standout performance awards along the way. Mischa recently produced Little Potato, a short doc directed by Wes Hurley and Nate Miller, that was awarded Grand Jury Prize for Short Documentary at SXSW, as well as Wes’s short VR doc Potato Dreams that will be released in the coming year. Mischa is currently focused on developing with Degenerate Art Ensemble, a cinematic VR experience that reimagines interwoven fairytales through a powerful female protangonist’s perspective. She is also producing a short animated film, Slow Moving Houses which she wrote and will direct.